Cisco is planning an expanded foray into the cloud-computing arena with its own brand of cloud-based office suite. The move will put the networking giant in direct competition with office suite leaders Google and Microsoft.

Cisco is already a player in the cloud-computing market through the web meeting platform that it offers courtesy of its subsidiary WebEx. Cisco acquired the web company back in 2007. In the first major change since its acquisition of WebEx, Cisco now plans on adding document drafting and collaborative working facilities to the WebEx platform.

Once introduced, Cisco will be competing directly with Microsoft and Google in the office-suite space. Microsoft is the undisputed leader in this area with its Microsoft Office suite, which has long been the standard for all document processing needs. While Microsoft Office has so far been an offline package, the software giant is also making a slow but steady move towards taking it online. The suite currently offers only document sharing and basic collaboration facilities online.

Google on the other hand has used its online popularity to launch and market its own cloud-based office package. This includes comprehensive word processing and spreadsheet functionalities, with new additions expected soon. The package has gained good popularity in the short time that it has been available and most cloud-computing users are currently registered with Google.

The foray by Cisco is a bold move considering the fact that it will be competing with two monopoly holders; Microsoft literally owns the offline space while Google is the master in all things online. The network devices manufacturer will most likely be banking on the expertise of its WebEx arm, which has a notable presence in the web-based meeting market.

It now remains to be whether Cisco can put up some competition for the two giants in what have so far been exclusive domains for them.

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